


a shape that's not the same

by caimani



Category: Hot Milk (Band), Stand Atlantic (Band)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Mermaids, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-26 06:32:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18277742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Summer is a time for swimming. Even better when you get a chance to do it with your long-distance girlfriend.





	a shape that's not the same

All of the oceans of the world are connected. Technically, it’d be possible to swim from one side of the world to the other. Even with ocean currents and storms and all that.

But it’s a fucking long swim from Sydney all the way to Manchester. Nevermind the fact that Manchester’s not on the coast; that can’t stop Bonnie. 

Bonnie’s considered it so many times. Or even meeting somewhere halfway, somewhere nice and warm and pretty. But she knows her own limitations, and she’d feel bad asking Hannah to try it. Hannah probably would. Hell, Hannah’s determination to make it work would probably convince Bonnie it could— and should— be done.

So instead of bringing up that idea, she tries to be patient and wait for the times they’re closer together. Those times— _these_ times— make up for all the months spent apart.

The Irish Sea is cold. Every time Bonnie steps into the waters around the UK so that her legs can fuse together and transform into her mershark tail, she complains about it to Hannah. 

“It’s summer,” she groans. “And this water’s still fucking freezing.”

Hannah responds the same way every time. She gives Bonnie a sly smile, kisses her on the cheek, and wraps her selkie skin around her body before jumping into the cold waters. Her impact with the surface of the water sends cold water splashing against Bonnie.

Bonnie yells and flinches away from the water. “You’re lucky you’re extra cute like that!” she yells after her selkie girlfriend. 

A few meters away, Hannah sticks her head up out of the water. She’s got an adorable little seal smile on her face. Aw, fuck. So goddamn cute. Bonnie braces herself and slides slowly into the water. 

As her skin becomes thicker and her lower half converts to a shark’s anatomy, her body adjusts to the cold. Bonnie still shivers for a few seconds as she swims after Hannah. 

“Hey, Han,” she says. “Lookin’ nice today, babe.”

Hannah swims in a figure eight, still smiling that cute seal smile of hers.

Hannah sticks out one of her foreflippers as Bonnie comes close. Bonnie takes it and they swim side by side just under the surface of the water, holding hands (sort of). Bonnie’s dorsal fin just barely sticks up through the water as they start to swim away from the coast. Jonno says her fin looks like a real shark’s fin when it’s like that.

It isn’t long before they reach a sandbar and let go of each other long enough for Hannah to hop up onto the sand. Bonnie lets go of her shark tail. The waves wash over her as she waits for the feeling to return to her now-human legs. 

Hannah’s selkie skin slides off and rests on her shoulders. “It’s not bad today,” she says. “Feels perfect to me.”

“Yeah, but you’re, like, immune to the cold like that,” Bonnie says, gesturing to the skin. “It’s not fair.”

“Well shark skin’s the same way, innit?”

“No?” 

Bonnie gets up— legs still wobbly— and sits on a rock on the sandbar. 

Hannah shrugs and goes to sit with Bonnie. She adjusts her selkie skin so it’s draped over the two of them. “Better?” It’s warm and heavy, and Bonnie thinks about making that ‘girlfriend material’ joke again, for the hundredth time.

Bonnie just leans into Hannah and kisses her. “Much better.”

The temperature of the water might be cold, but the breeze blowing against the two of them now is nice. Not as warm as Australia, but it’s good. Bonnie puts an arm around Hannah.

“You ever think about how…” Hannah starts, and stops, biting her lip. “Ah. Like, the Irish Sea connects to the Atlantic Ocean, yeah? ...which connects to the Arctic—”

“Oh…” Bonnie says.

“And, I could— it might take a while, but—”

“Getting on a plane is faster,” Bonnie says. It’s what she always has to tell herself, even when she’s drunk and rambling to Jonno and Miki. 

Hannah looks determined and Bonnie is overwhelmed with how much she loves her dumb girlfriend. She laughs and hugs Hannah close to her, squeezing a bit. “Yeah. I think about that all the time.”

“We should try it!” Hannah says excitedly, squeezing back. “Or maybe we both swim to Japan and—”

Bonnie actually stops to consider that: swimming around in Japan’s waters with Hannah. It takes effort to shake the idea out of her head. “We can just _fly_ there, you know, _in a plane_ , and _then_ go to the ocean and swim around together.”

“But what if we had all the time we wanted?” Hannah says. “If we didn’t have the bands and schedules and—” she sighs and drops her head onto Bonnie’s shoulder. 

Bonnie is silent for a moment. The conversation definitely took a heavier turn. That’s not exactly what they want on this day, one of the few days they’ll have together for a while. So she picks up Hannah, causing her selkie girlfriend to cry out with surprise, and breaks into a run at the (too cold) water again.

“Race you to where the guys are!” she yells a second before she jumps into the water. Hannah screams in delight as the cold water swallows them up.

There’s a moment of confusion as Bonnie’s legs become a tail again and Hannah twists around to get her skin around her. But then they’re swimming at top speed for a distant stretch of beach where their bandmates are hanging out, completely unaware they’re about to be the very cold and wet victims of a shark and selkie attack.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Thought I Could Take This to My Grave](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18651796) by [The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own/pseuds/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own)
  * [Don't You Need a Breath of Air?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18652081) by [The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own/pseuds/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own)




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